1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to the sorting of blocks and more particularly to the sorting of paving blocks in preparation for shipping.
2. Background of the Invention
Blocks of various sizes and composition are used for paving plazas, roads, sidewalks and are used for many other purposes. The blocks are made from concrete, stone, brick, marble, earthenware tiles and other materials. While blocks are made in many different sizes and shapes, this disclosure relates to blocks that are manufactured or cut in generally parallelepided shapes.
Block manufacturers typically stack blocks 20 on a palette 22 to ship the blocks 20 to customers as is shown in FIG. 1. After the blocks 20 are stacked, the stack and palette 22 are wrapped in plastic or by straps to keep the stack in place during shipping. Orders for blocks from the manufacturer typically include various amounts of differing sized blocks.
To increase efficiency of building a stack of blocks 20 as shown in FIG. 1, a manufacturer sorts the different sized blocks before sending the blocks to a stacking machine, throwing away any rejected blocks. Manually sorting these blocks 20 is time consuming, which increases the cost of production of the blocks.
What is needed is a more automated way to sort a group of blocks by size before sending the blocks to a stacking machine.